NANGO leaders released on bail
By Violet Gonda
27 October 2009

The two leaders from the National Association of Non-Governmental Organizations (NANGO), who were arrested on Sunday on allegations of holding ‘an illegal political meeting,’ were granted bail on Tuesday. NANGO Chief Executive Officer Cephas Zinhumwe, and board chairperson Dadirai Chikwengo, were arrested at the airport when they were trying to leave for Harare after attending a two-day scheduled conference in Victoria Falls.

NANGO spokesperson Fambai Ngirande told SW Radio Africa that the two were granted bail, pending another hearing in November, after the State failed to clarify what regulation they had violated under the Public Order and Security Act. Ngirande said the police claim that as ‘conveners of the meeting the two tolerated political discourse’ and should have notified the police in advance if they were going to have a political gathering.

But the spokesperson refuted these allegations saying it was not a political gathering but an annual NGO Directors Summer School attended by scores of directors from civil society and the NGO community. He said: “The fact that they are unable to clarify their own trumped up charges, demonstrates that POSA is a bad law.”

The spokesperson also said a stakeholders’ conference, organised by the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs, has been postponed due to a decision by the civil society not to participate. The conference was aimed at discussing challenges relating to the justice delivery system.

But members of civil society and law based organisations advised the Ministry they would not participate in the conference because of the arrests of the NANGO officials and because of the very serious breakdown of the justice delivery system and the lack of any rule of law in Zimbabwe.

The organisations that withdrew from the three day Conference are:

Law Society of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, Zimbabwe Women Lawyers’ Association; Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum; Legal Resources Foundation; Justice for Children Trust; National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations and Zimbabwe Human Rights Association.

A statement issued by the groups said: “Stakeholders from the civil society are committed to contributing to the restoration of the Rule of Law and ensuring access to justice for all in Zimbabwe. However, the selective targeting and harassment of non-governmental organisations and the arbitrary arrests and detention of human rights defenders continues unabated. So too does the unwillingness or inability by the state and its agents to adhere to the Constitution and the laws of Zimbabwe.”